At least 38 dead in Kathmandu plane crash

A passenger plane has crashed as it landed at Kathmandu airport, killing at least 38 people.

UpdatedUpdated 13 March

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A passenger plane has swerved, crashed and burst into flames as it landed at Kathmandu airport in Nepal. killing at least 38 people.

A police official said at least 23 were injured.

The plane, a twin-propeller Bombardier Dash 8 flying from Bangladesh, swerved repeatedly before it crashed, landing near the runway..

Amanda Summers, an American who works in Nepal, watched the crash happen from the terrace of her home office.

"It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains," she said. She said it was unclear if it had reached the runway when it landed. "All of a sudden there was a blast and then another blast," she said.

Fire crews put out the flames very quickly, perhaps within a minute, she said, though clouds of thick, dark smoke rose into the sky above Kathmandu, the capital of the Himalayan nation.

The flight was arriving from Bangladesh, said an airport official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of airport policy.

An employee who answered the phone at the US-Bangla offices in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, said no one was available to talk.

"I have no other details," said the employee, who refused to give his name. "But a bad incident has happened."

The airline, part of US-Bangla Group, is based in Dhaka and flies to several domestic and international destinations.

The parent company operates in a number of industries, including real estate, education and agriculture.

Kathmandu's airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. In September 2012, a Sita Air turboprop plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest hit a bird and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 on board.